Renowned British biologist and author Richard Dawkins announced on August 10 that his Facebook account has been deleted, allegedly in response to his remarks on Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. Dawkins shared his frustrations on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), where he stated that his Facebook account was taken down after he expressed his opinion about Khelif's participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“My entire @facebook account has been deleted, seemingly (no reason given) because I tweeted that genetically male boxers such as Imane Khalif (XY undisputed) should not fight women in Olympics. Of course my opinion is open to civilised argument. But outright censorship?”, Richard Dawkins stated on social networking platform X.
On July 29, Dawkins posted on X, stating, "Two men, pretending to be women, are being allowed to compete against real women in the Olympics," referring to the participation of certain athletes in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The controversy centres around Khelif, who became a focal point of debate during the Paris Olympics after questions arose about her gender eligibility. Khelif was previously disqualified from the 2023 world championships following a failed gender eligibility test. Despite this, she was allowed to compete in the Olympics, where she won her first bout when her opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, withdrew just 46 seconds into the match.
Dawkins emphasised that his comments were made on X, not on Facebook, yet it was his Facebook account that got deleted. He said, "To clarify. I made the statement on @X, not on Facebook. Yet is it my @Facebook account which is deleted."
In an earlier post on August 2, Dawkins had also complained about the unexplained removal of his Facebook page, stating, ""My Facebook page has been deleted for no apparent reason, and we have not received a response through @meta or @facebook for a resolution. Was it something I said?"
Debate on gender eligibility in sports intensifies as IOC sticks to 2016 rules for Paris Olympics
Khelif is an accomplished amateur who won a silver medal at the International Boxing Association’s 2022 world championships. The same governing body disqualified her from last year’s championships shortly before her gold-medal match because of what it claimed were elevated levels of testosterone.
Olympic Boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting face scrutiny over gender eligibility
Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan suddenly have received massive scrutiny for their presence in Paris after years of amateur competition. Lin won IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body stripped her of a bronze medal last year because it claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test. Khelif and Lin are two-time Olympians who fought in the Tokyo Games with no controversy. Lin has been an elite-level amateur boxer for a decade and Khelif for six years. They were allowed to compete in Paris by the IOC task force, which has run the past two Olympic boxing tournaments.
The Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement condemning what it termed “lies” and “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets”.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who was visiting Italy athletes in the Olympic Village on August 1, voiced criticism over Carini having to fight Khelif, saying she had since 2021 opposed allowing athletes with “genetically male” characteristics to compete against women.
The IOC defended their right to compete. Olympic boxing reached gender parity for the first time this year, with 124 men and 124 women competing in Paris.
“Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said. ”They are women in their passports and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female.”
Several sports have updated their gender rules over the past three years, including World Aquatics, World Athletics and the International Cycling Union. The track body also last year tightened rules on athletes with differences in sex development.
The IOC said it made its eligibility decisions on boxers based on the gender-related rules that were applied during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
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